The buyer has a 100% rating, the other gear being sold is all pre 2000 equipment; the EOS-3 came out in 98. All the other items look in pretty good shape, they seem well cared for and a 50mm as a one lens setup might make sense.

I'd send a msg to the buyer and ask if there were any other lens in the estate contents that had already been sold, might give you a clue as to use, type of shooting done...the additional pictures added to the auction look pretty clean.

Probably...picked up a T90, a 24 f2.8, 50 f1.8 and 80-200...all Canon, back in 92, the box was pretty ragged, closed with bent up mashed up flaps, had a tag on it 'camera stuff - $75 OBO'

I looked inside, noticed the T90 had the PC mod done to it, my two were originals, picked it up, nearly zero scuffs or dust. The 80-200 was in a case, badly scuffed up n worn, the lens was in perfect shape. Smiled, put everything away, took 4 twenty dollar bills out my pocket, the seller smiled said he'd get me change...nah don't worry 5 bucks isn't worth the effort

StillFingerz wrote:
Probably...picked up a T90, a 24 f2.8, 50 f1.8 and 80-200...all Canon, back in 92, the box was pretty ragged, closed with bent up mashed up flaps, had a tag on it 'camera stuff - $75 OBO'

I looked inside, noticed the T90 had the PC mod done to it, my two were originals, picked it up, nearly zero scuffs or dust. The 80-200 was in a case, badly scuffed up n worn, the lens was in perfect shape. Smiled, put everything away, took 4 twenty dollar bills out my pocket, the seller smiled said he'd get me change...nah don't worry 5 bucks isn't worth the effort

leftcoastlefty wrote:
I don't care how lucrative the deal may be, I don't trust anyone on fleabay.

Even if the sale is legit, there are some serious problems with it. The sale is final and basically as is. The seller doesn't seem to be qualified to assess the lens condition, functionality and performance properly.

Very high risk, and no gain, as the lens will probably sell in the range $3,500-$3,800.

PetKal wrote:
You did good.
You know the fear many of us have........if we kick the bucket suddenly, on a short notice, that our surviving spouses might sell our lenses for what we told them we paid for them.

"Yes, my late husband Peter loved this 50 f/1.0 lens, and since he said he paid $1,200 for it, I could let you have it for $600, unless you think that's too much ?"

SoCal, land of fun n sun...and Beverly Hills, Bel Air n Hollywood...estate sales galore, I found that T90 not 20 miles away down south of me in Newport Beach, harbor folk got the buckroos...

What's the appeal of this lens? It's impractical to use, slow to focus, and the image quality outside of f/1 pales relative to every other Canon 50mm. For subject isolation, the 85/1.2 is even more entertaining at half the cost.

alexdi wrote:
What's the appeal of this lens? It's impractical to use, slow to focus, and the image quality outside of f/1 pales relative to every other Canon 50mm. For subject isolation, the 85/1.2 is even more entertaining at half the cost.

The appeal of the lens compared to the 85/1.2 is the normal field of view.

"the image quality outside of f/1 pales relative to every other Canon 50mm."
That is a bit exaggerated. It does just as good, maybe a little better, than the other Canons in the center at f/1.4. The edges don't shape up until very small apertures though.

Anybody wondering how the lens does compared to other 50 mm lenses can also take a look here:

I check out ebay for good pricing, sometimes there are some really good auctions. I also follow certain products before and after a retail product purchase. Case in point the 100L IS Macro.

Both on ebay and here on FM used 100s go for 800 to about 825; plus shipping/PP fees. An ebay auction just ended on a plus 1 yr old warranty-less 100L, it sold at 810, 12 for shipping without insurance, 25 for both...so 835 if you played it safe...that's been the norm since release. I bought mine late last year at B&H for 899 with it's 1yr warranty, no shipping/tax charged, waited a week for delivery.

That extra 64 bucks was worth every penny, just for possible return alone. As Peter noted, this 50 f1.0 is a no-return auction, personally I never e-bay unless the return window is 7 days or more from date of receipt, you have to inspect, use what you purchase and have time to meet the return deadline. The risk of loss is just to high when flying blind, few pictures on the internet are not proof of anything, product in hand is.

I've had decent luck getting gear form local estate sales, out of 30 or so purchases on ebay only two went sour and paypal recovered my funds...fortunately I'm on a low budget, don't buy high priced items, only once going over the 1k mark.

With a rare, potentially high priced product like this 50 f1.0, with no return options, highly risky in my book...lots or research with the seller is required, emails sent back n forth are manditory, be a pest, they make for great evidence if a fraud occurs. If a seller won't openly talk about the item...no sale...even if I really want it

Jerry, in this particular case, you can ask the seller all kinds of questions, yet, she did say she was not a "professional photographer", just an ebay dealer of estate auction knick-knacks, therefore the value of her lens description is questionable.
Sold "as is", no returns. If the price was $1,500, then perhaps one might take the risk. However, if you pay $3,500 for it, then the risk taking is totally misplaced, as one can make a basically no-risk purchase of the same lens model elsewhere, for just a little bit more money.

That is understood Peter; the uninformed are not usually good information, but you can ask pointed/direct questions that even a layman can answer of some issues, paint chipping, dents, dust inside the lens, issues pictures may not reveal and thus be evidence...blah blah blah

My experience is with low ticket items under 1K, not sure I'd ever risk above that unless there was a one-on-one meet-up to examine said item, but even those are risky unless you bring bodyguards with ya My one 1K ebay purchase was local, we met before the purchase and I had me dogs/boyz with me, in a very public venue. I know this isn't the norm tho, nor is morality quite often...as per recent 200 f1.8 events have sadly proven, I must check to see if Dennis has any closure yet.

BTW, I've found Adorama, B&H and kEH really good resources for used gear, prices are a bit higher, risk is quite low...as you pointed out...alternatives are available.

Fleebay is much like carnival, the glass, risk involved, is never worth a coin toss